Charter Night 2020 - Alan Hinkes - Mountaineering

Penrith Rotary - Charter Night 2020 on ZOOM

In these unprecedented times Penrith Rotary’s 74^th annual Charter celebration, the club’s birthday party, had to move online. On the night we were joined by a total of 57 members and guests who were distributed across 3 screens on ZOOM.

President Charlie Shepherd opened the evening by welcoming members and guests and explaining the format of the evening. This consisted of a minimum of Rotary formalities followed by the main event, our speaker Alan Hinkes OBE.

District Governor Welma Robinson talked briefly about some of the projects and events that Penrith Rotary organise in a normal year. She also encouraged guests to have a look at the Penrith club website to see a more detailed picture of our work.

After Welma, our speaker for the evening was the world-renowned mountaineer Alan Hinkes OBE. We were delighted earlier this year when Alan agreed to join Penrith Rotary as an Honorary Member. Even before this, after a chance meeting in Penrith, he had been supporting the club’s efforts for several years on social media. During this time he has helped to raise our social media profile, especially on Twitter.

Alan was the first Briton to climb the world's 14 highest mountains, all over 8000M and is part of an exclusive club of climbers who have achieved this feat.

His talk was entitled – “Himalayan Climbing: Everest, K2 & all 14 8000M”

Clearly Alan has an amazing story to tell and we were enthralled for about an hour as he presented photographs and video clips of his exploits in the high mountains of the Himalaya and Karakorum. Interestingly Alan, who lives in Yorkshire spends a lot of time in the Lakes where one of his favourite climbs is Helvellyn.

Alan’s chosen charity for the night was Swaledale MRT Command Vehicle Fund. They are trying to raise £80000 to purchase and convert a VW van into a mobile command centre to replace the converted horsebox they currently use for this purpose. Hopefully we will have helped in some small way towards this goal.

As the night drew to a close we hoped that we had managed to achieve our objectives for the event.

1. 1. To enjoy the company of friends, both old and new, to take the opportunity in these COVID times to have a pleasant, and safe, “VIRTUAL” night out.
   2. To listen to an inspirational speaker with an amazing story to tell.
   3. To raise some money for a great cause, chosen by our speaker.
   4. And finally, to give our guests a snapshot of what Rotary does, in the hope that they might one day join us.

Anyone who would like more information about Rotary can contact us via john@shorters.org